Recipes of the Week: Smoked Oysters and Grilled Octopus Salad

The tinned smoked oysters you can buy at the supermarket taste like
oily cardboard compared to these plump, delicious beauties. This is
a great thing to do when you’ve got your smoker up and running for
something else. When you’ve finished your main project, take
advantage of the hot smoker and barbecue a few tubs of oysters for
later consumption. Keep them in the refrigerator for a few days, or
freeze them for a month or two, but I’ll bet they won’t be around
that long!

(Buy
the way, this recipe works well on the grill. Just use low-medium
heat and it's probably a good idea to grill the oysters using one
of those perforated thingys that you put on top of your cooking
grate to prevent stuff from falling through. If you use this
method, reduce the cooking time to a few minutes per side.)

Prepare your smoker for barbecuing, bringing the temperature to
200–220˚F | 95–100˚C. Drain the oysters and pat them dry with a
paper towel. Coat them lightly with oil and sprinkle both sides
with rub. Let them sit for a few minutes, until the rub starts to
glisten. Spray your cooking grate with vegetable cooking spray and
place the oysters on the grate. Smoke them for 1 hour, using
hickory as the flavoring agent, until the oysters are springy to
the touch and have taken on a smoky golden hue. Remove them from
the smoker, put them on a serving tray and pass them around.
They’re best fresh out of the smoker, dipped in barbecue sauce.

Championship Barbecue
Rub, a.k.a. Bob’s Rub

Makes about 3 cups | 750 mL

The Butt Shredders call this Bob’s Rub, and it’s what we use in
competition. Bob Lyon, the granddaddy of barbecue in the Pacific
Northwest, shared this at the barbecue workshop that first
introduced me to the joys of real barbecue and prompted me to
become a barbecue competitor. It follows a rule of thumb that’s
worth remembering: A third, a third, a third. Which means one-third
sugar, one-third seasoned salts, and one-third dry herbs and
spices.

Add as much heat as you want to this basic rub, using cayenne
pepper, hot paprika, or ground chipotles. Then add 2 or 3 signature
spices to suit whatever you’re cooking or your personal taste, like
powdered thyme, oregano, cumin, sage, powdered ginger, etc. Add
only 1 to 3 tsp | 5 to 15 mL of each signature seasoning so as not
to overpower the rub.

Grilled Octopus Salad
Makes 4 servings

When I was a teenager traveling Europe, my friend Rich and I rented
Vespas in Rome and cycled to Lido, the beach community just west of
the city. We stopped at a restaurant and the garrulous proprietor
talked us into eating a seafood salad that featured marinated
octopus. I’ll never forget the chewy, tangy chunks of octopus in
that salad. It was one of the most satisfying meals I had on that
trip.

Put a wine cork in a pot of cold water. Place the octopus arm in
the water and bring it to a boil over high heat. Turn the heat down
to low and simmer the octopus for about an hour, or until it is
tender when you poke it with a knife. Rinse it, dry it, and set it
aside.
Prepare your grill for direct high heat. Brush the octopus arm with
a little of the olive oil and grill it just until it has some nice
char marks on both sides. Slice it diagonally into bite-sized
pieces and put it in a salad bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients
and toss the salad. Cover the bowl and place it in the refrigerator
overnight. Toss and serve the salad the next day, garnished with
chopped parsley and wedges of lemon.